Archive for September, 2013

Films on Demand Master Academic Collection now contains over 750 BBC film titles.

Films on Demand Master Academic Collection is a streaming video library database that allows students, faculty and staff on and off campus access to content from Films for the Humanities, BBC, PBS and others.

Search the RDC Library catalogue for these e-video titles using the search term ‘BBC films’ to see the wide range of topics covered in this BBC collection. Here are but a few from BBC Worldwide…

Welcome back! The start of a new Fall term is always an exciting time, for you and for us. We’ve been busy over the summer and you’ll notice a few changes at the RDC Library:

Group Study Rooms can now be booked online. I know, right? We’re excited too!

West Wing Wow! The print periodicals from the West Wing area (main floor) have been moved upstairs, gone virtual, or been discontinued. So that left us with the question: What to do with this space? Talk about a blank slate! Look for a ton of changes here: lots of plug-ins for technology, plus rolling chairs, tables and whiteboards that can be configured for group work and collaboration. Renos will get underway later this month and furniture should start arriving by mid-October!

Writing and Math, together at last! The Writing Skills Centre (WSC) and Math Tutoring have moved to the East Wing area (main floor). Appointments with the WSC can now be booked online. And Math Tutoring is still available every weekday via drop-in. The main Learning Support Services Desk is still in the same place (around the corner from the Information Desk, beside the stairs), open weekdays 10 am to 3 pm. You can also contact them by phone 403-357-3629; or email help_learn@rdc.ab.ca or disabilityservices@rdc.ab.ca .

Library hours. Our hours have changed. Evening, weekend, exam (extended), and summer hours have all been affected. If you’re interested, visit our website for an explanation of how and why we arrived at those changes.

“Moniter the quiet areas. There is constantly someone talking it’s getting very annoying having to tell everyone to be quiet all the time.”

We Said…

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It sounds like you’re already aware that you can let other students know that they’re in a quiet space, or remind them to take their conversations, phone calls, etc. to another area. If you are not comfortable doing this, or if it has been unsuccessful, please feel free to approach a staff member to help you out.

We will increase our staff presence in this area and will also place some reminder tentcards in this area, to raise students’ awareness of how this space is to be used.

“I don’t know why it would be a good idea to cut hours down, you want students to do good with their lives but you cut hours for students to study and do assignments. it makes no sense at all. Im a full time student, working with a full time job im lucky to get back to get a half hour to an hour in, we need this to stay laterrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

We Said …

Thanks for your feedback on the recent change to our library hours.

As you may know, Alberta post-secondary institutions were faced with an unexpected and unprecedented 7.3% decrease in operating grants from the Alberta government in spring 2013. At RDC, this meant a $6 million funding shortfall. All areas of the college were affected, including the library.

We were forced to make some hard decisions, and one of those was to reduce the hours we are open. We tried to mitigate the impact on students as much as possible, which is why the majority of our hours reduction happened in the summer, when students are not on campus. Sadly though, we did have to reduce hours slightly during the school year, as you’ve noticed.

We are very sympathetic to your situation and will use every piece of evidence we can gather to show that students want and need the hours reinstated. We’re thrilled to have your voice to add to this conversation.

If you’re interested, visit our website for a fuller explanation of the decision we made about our hours.

You said:
“I would appreciate if the library could reinstate its former longer hour as it was more convenient for my life and I don’t have access to software at home.”

We said:

Thank you for your feedback about our recent change to library hours.

As you may know, Alberta post-secondary institutions were faced with an unexpected and unprecedented 7.3% decrease in operating grants from the Alberta government in spring 2013. At RDC, this meant a $6 million funding shortfall. All areas of the college were affected, including the library.

We were forced to make some hard decisions, and one of those was to reduce the hours we are open. The majority of the hours reduction affected our summer hours (which has no impact on students), but some of the reduction is occurring during the academic year, as you’ve noticed.

We are sympathetic to your situation and will use every piece of evidence we can gather to show that students want and need the hours reinstated.

You may be interested in finding out about RDC’s virtual desktop, which is a way for you to install all RDC software on your personal computer (at home). This includes the full Microsoft Office suite of products, for free. If you need to know more about this, visit our staff at the Information Desk or contact the ITS Department.

If you’re interested, visit our website for a fuller explanation of the decision we made about our hours.